Sometimes in the uncertain world that is the NFL draft, you need someone else's failure to be a success, someone else's mistake to pass your test.

"You know we won't know for sure for a while, but you always want to feel good about what you did and how you went about it, the decisions you made," Broncos executive vice president of football operations John Elway said. "You have to pick the right people for your team, your system, coach them up and hopefully they become good football players for a long time for the Denver Broncos."

In the NFL draft last weekend, the Broncos stuck to Elway's mantra of selecting the best player available at every turn. They benefited from others' choices, they trusted their medical staff and they took a developmental project or two with an eye on the future, even as they aim for the Super Bowl now.

An early look at their 2013 draft class:

Patience still a virtue. The Broncos tinkered with the idea of bailing out of the first round, but as the picks were made above them, they saw a player they had rated far more highly on their board than the 28th pick they had in hand. North Carolina tackle Sylvester Williams was a player few in the league believed would fall far out of the draft's top 15, but, with an early run on offensive tackles and pass rushers, he was available at No. 28.

The Broncos project him to be a starter from Day One. He will play the "3 technique" in coordinator Jack Del Rio's defensive front, with free-agent signee Terrance Knighton usually playing over the center and Williams playing in the gap between the guard and tackle.

"He was a guy that we've been looking for, a young anchor in the middle of the defensive line, for some time," Elway said. "And (we) were able to find a good one that has a chance to be a great one."

Williams is a power interior player who routinely makes plays behind the line of scrimmage.

Best player available. Personnel people aren't always going to agree about who the best player available is, but the Broncos clearly stuck to their board when they pulled down running back Montee Ball's name with the 58th pick.

Elway said Ball was the top back on the team's draft board. Ball set an NCAA record with 83 career touchdowns. If the Broncos are right about Ball, he should step in and contribute immediately to an offense that was routinely disappointing in the run game in 2012. A big problem for the Broncos was short-yardage situations in key late-season games, including the playoff loss to Baltimore.

If the Broncos are not right, they passed over outstanding players who could have helped elsewhere in order to take a luxury player in a pass-first offense.

"The production he had in college was tremendous," Elway said.

The Broncos also snagged prospects slightly more highly rated than their draft slots in defensive end Quanterus Smith (fifth round) and quarterback Zac Dysert (seventh round). The Broncos also believe wide receiver Tavarres King, a fifth-round pick who played 56 games at Georgia, can contribute because of his ability to win the battles with defensive backs at the line of scrimmage and then use his 4.4-second speed in the 40-yard dash.

The medical story. Smith, who tore his left ACL in the 10th game of the 2012 season, is raw, but one skill that routinely translates from college football to the NFL is an ability to rush the passer.

Smith can do that. He had a three-sack game against Alabama last fall and he was leading the nation in sacks, with 12½, at the time of his injury. Like all players who were invited to the scouting combine but could not work out because of injury/recovery, Smith returned to Indianapolis earlier this month for a medical recheck.

The Broncos, after receiving the results, believe he could be ready to participate by training camp.

The reach. NFL personnel people like cornerback Kayvon Webster. He's confident, smart, fast (4.37 in the 40 at the combine) and a quality tackler.

Yet even the Broncos may admit they reached slightly to snag him in the third round with the 90th pick overall. Many teams had a fourth- or fifth-round grade on him after a no-interception season in 2012 in a struggling defense at South Florida.

But teams such as the Broncos, coming off a playoff season, always have to make a choice as they pick at the bottom of each round. Do they want to jump a little early to get the player they want, or wait and hope the player will still be there when they pick at the bottom of the next round?

The Broncos strayed from their "don't reach" philosophy a bit with Webster, but they see him as a physical player who can contribute quickly.

The projects. Vinston Painter was just a one-year starter at tackle for Virginia Tech after spending time at guard as well as defensive tackle earlier in his career. He's a physical specimen, so much so that Elway said: "I think he's ... a guy we want leading us off the bus because he's a good-looking guy." But he's also a player many personnel evaluators in the league saw as a seventh rounder or an un-drafted free agent.

Painter has quality athleticism — he was one of the few linemen to have a sub-5.0 40-yard dash at the combine — and the Broncos saw a potential, down-the-road fit at right tackle, and perhaps eventually on the left side.

And with Dysert, Elway stuck to his predraft promise to "always look at quarterbacks." Elway wants a plan in place at the position for whenever the post-Peyton Manning era begins. Elway sees Dysert, a three-time captain at Miami (Ohio), as the kind of player he wants in the quarterback meeting room with Manning and Brock Osweiler.

"You never get everything you want, but ... we feel pretty good about it," Elway said. "And now we turn them over to the coaches and see what they can do."

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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